Matt Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 Finally the modelling fairy blessed my humble abode (looking suspiciously like the UPS guy....) A pair of Tamiya Vb(T)s, 2 sets of Eduard PE and enough Ultracast goodies to feed my addiction for a while. I'm still not 100% finalized on exactly which Spitfires to model. One will definatly be ER220 (QJ.R) of 92 Sqn, flown by Neville Duke from Libya in '43. The second I'm in 2 minds over. I could do her as EP706 (T.L) of 249 Sqn flown by Buzz Beurling from Malta in '42. This is my fall back choice if I can't find a better candidate. I've been toying with EP829 (T.N) also of 249 Sqn aka 'Maltas 1000th', flown by Joseph Lynch. My decal sheet says this was a Vc, but EP series were Vb or Vb(T) and I have a late war photo of her and she's clearly a 'b'. The problem is whether or not, at the time she was 'chalked' as Malta's 1000th, was she wearing the tropical scheme, or some variation of the infamous 'Malta Blue'. The problem I have is that the only pictures I can find of her are inconclusive.One is a cockpit closeup of Lynch and an 'erk' chalking 'Maltas 100th' under the windscreen. Its a good reproduction, but its too much of a closeup to tell if she is a single colour or wearing camo.The second is a late war series of shots ( there's a MkIX in the background). She's wearing the tropical scheme, but she looks like she's been freshly painted and the 'Maltas 1000th' has been repainted completely differently than when it was first applied. So, was she tropical scheme, or blue and dark earth, or just overall blue, and what shade ? Ahhhgh. ! My other option is to pick a Vc and convert the Tamiya wing to a Vc (not that hard). If I go this route I might do BR301(UF.S), another 'blue' Spitfire. Anyways, paint is a while away, so I have time to ponder. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrallman Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 great, your spitfires and come play with my 3 spitfires, I too am awaiting a mess of ultracast goodies. I am doing a Vb, a Vc (with a Vc wing, since I disagree that it is not that hard to convert the Vb to a Vc wing), and an IX. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thom Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 Spitfire for me too! Going to use the Aeromaster Defenders of Malta (pt2) sheet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
is it windy yet? Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I wanna do one of these too, but I'll be too busy to get to it. Ron Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted November 6, 2007 Author Share Posted November 6, 2007 Slow progress, but at last I have something to show. Interior is about 90% done. Its a mix of stock Tamiya and a newer Eduard P.E set. This newer set deletes the flap detail (yay!) and add better cockpit stuff (yay!) in colour (hmm) and some better external details (yay!). I'm in 2 minds about the colour parts. I'm not sure I like the 'grey' on the Instrument Panel, and a couple of other parts flaked all the paint of when I had bend them into a curl. On the other hand, the IP comes out great, and some of the other 'placard' type parts really benefit. My original plan was to use the Eduard seat and belts, but PE and I have a tenous relationship, so I gave up on that plan and ordered Ultracast seats which are still in the paint booth. Paint is PollyScale Br Int Green, post shaded and dry brushed a bit. Details are in various Citadel shades. The U/C controls are one of the best features of the new Eduard PE Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thom Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Looks really good so far. I'd avoided using the Eduard PE for my build because I've only ever used the old version, and didn't think it was worthwhile. But that new stuff looks fantastic alongside your own work - I'll definitely get it for my next Spit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted November 10, 2007 Author Share Posted November 10, 2007 A little further forward. A package arrived from Ultracast, so I now have seats. I spray them black, then build up the colours brush painting. The red brown is PS Panzer red brown, the rest is Citadels of indeterminate vintage. Fuselages are together and underwent a rudderectomy. I like to position the rudders slightly off center. I have to put in the undercarriage controls, oxygen hose and some additinal seat belt straps, and I can attach the wings. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HistnScale Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Very nice, sir. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thom Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 That's looking really great. You can never have enough Tamiya Spits... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
David Walker Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 That cockpit is absolutely amazing. Very nice work there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted November 24, 2007 Author Share Posted November 24, 2007 Still making headway, just slowly. All the basic construction is done, now its just chewing through all the fiddly bits before starting paint. Every time I build one of these Tamiya Spits, I try something new. This time around I'm trying a few things. 1: I'm going to leave off the tailplanes and radiator/oilcooler fairings until after the basic paint and before glossing. 2: I'm trying Mr Surfacer as a spot filler, blended with laquer thinner on a cotton bud. 3: I'm not going to Future the Canopies until after the masks are removed. I'm replacing the kit cannon barrels with Ultracast ones, hence the huge great holes in the leading edge. I'm going to try adding them after the initial paintjob to make it easier to mask. Something else new. Whilst I've cut and repositioned the tail wheels for a while now, they aren't especially strong. This time, I've made fully castoring wheels with some careful drillwork and a cut down pin. Cheers for now, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chuck1945 Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 This time, I've made fully castoring wheels with some careful drillwork and a cut down pin. Way cool !! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Looks excellent Matt! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thom Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Definitely going to give that castoring wheel trick a try some time, looks brilliant! Looking forward to seeing how the replacement gun barrels look, too - I've never seen them before. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted November 26, 2007 Author Share Posted November 26, 2007 Definitely going to give that castoring wheel trick a try some time, looks brilliant! Looking forward to seeing how the replacement gun barrels look, too - I've never seen them before. Thanks thom. I was suprised I got away with it. There is very little room for error with a #73 drill, so I was expecting to end up tearing through the side of the leg. I have no idea how the barrels will work out. They look great (like all Ultracast stuff). They offer 2 choices to fit them. Drill a hole, or cut the kit parts flush, and glue them on as a butt joint. I have no luck getting butt-joints to hold my rough handling, so I went with the 'drill a hole' method, except its an odd size, so I had to enlarge a 1/64 Inch hole out with a needle file. I suspect I will need to do some filling and repainting around them once they are in. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ch9862 Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 1: I'm going to leave off the tailplanes and radiator/oil cooler fairings until after the basic paint and before glossing.Why? Is fit that good, and how does leaving these off it help?I'm asking, because even with the greatest kit, I usually end up using some filler. Hence I often go in the opposite direction - attach as much to the airframe as I can get away with before painting. Can't wait to see more :wacko: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted November 27, 2007 Author Share Posted November 27, 2007 Why? Is fit that good, and how does leaving these off it help?I'm asking, because even with the greatest kit, I usually end up using some filler. Hence I often go in the opposite direction - attach as much to the airframe as I can get away with before painting. Can't wait to see more :D Well, like I said, I'm trying something new :) With some careful, light sanding, you can get the fit pretty much gap free. The last couple I've built I haven't had to use filler here. Depending on my frame of mind and mood, I either freehand or use paper 'soft' masks for Camo. In both cases I struggle to get nice tight edges around the 90 degree intersection between the tailplanes and the fuselage, and there are a lot of edges at that point in the pattern. So my thought is to keep them seperate to simplify the masking and painting, then attach them after the initial colour coats, and before the gloss coat prior to decaling. That way, if there is any clean up / touch up required, its no big deal. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ch9862 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 So my thought is to keep them seperate to simplify the masking and paintingI see. These things never bother me - if there's some overspray, I just mask with tape, or even masking paper with a small hole in it. I'm sure you're Spits will turn out better than mine regardless . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted December 2, 2007 Author Share Posted December 2, 2007 Finally this project moves from the bench to the spray booth. I'm neither a pre-shader nor a post shader. I'm an inbetweener. There's a base coat of some light Tamiya Grey (XF something or other) followed by a light coat of Xtracylics MidStone. Once the base coat is dry, I mix up a darker shade (with a little red-brown) and a lighter shade (with some white). I lay down a shadow/highlight pattern that looks pretty awful. I did more blotchyness than I usually do to try and capture that worn desert paint look. Then I take a thinned mix of the base colour, and with low pressure, start to tone it down. Usually it takes a couple of light all-over passes, followed by careful spot work to tone down specific areas (usually the darker shade needs more than the lighter shade). I just keep going until there's just a ghost of the original shadow/hilight work left. The flash and camera make it look more contrasty than it is in reality. it s lot more subtle than this. The rest of the camo needs masks. I used to freehand it, but I prefer the result from a soft mask, so I make my own. 1: Using a spare MkI kit, I lay out 70mm Tamiya tape and mark up the pattern with a fine Sharpie 2:I peel off the tape, and lay it out on regular photocopier paper 3: I label each part and annotate the kit painting guide, so I know which bit is which, then I cut them out. 4: Finally I lay them out on another peice of paper and trace around them. This took about an hour to do. Now I can photocopy this sheet as many times as I need. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ch9862 Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 I'm an inbetweener.Sounds kinky, but the Spit looks very nice .The flash and camera make it look more contrasty than it is in reality. it s lot more subtle than this.I know what you mean - my camera usually doesn't do what I want it to, either :D.so I make my own.Man - you went all out with these :). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 What a trying week. This weeks goal was to finish off the basic paintwork, by laying down the Dark Earth part of the camo. In order to do that, I had to decide which 2 Spitfires I was going to do. One was going to be ER220, so that was easy. I toyed with a few choices, and decided to do the second as EP829 in a 'mythical' Malta Blue Scheme. For this work , I have to make 3 assumptions. All 3 I'm happy with, but by no means am I claiming them to be any kind of reality. I just didn't want two almost identical Spitfires on my shelf. so, 1: That EP829 was 'Malta Blue', 2: That in some cases, Malta Blue was thinly overpainted over the original DE/MS scheme, allowing it to show through and 3: The specific shade of 'Blue'. So the plan was to paint both aircraft in the DE/MS scheme and then overpaint one of them with a really thin coat of 'Blue'. Sounds easy. Spraying the DE was a complete mess. The paper masks all curled up with the first pass, so I had to lay down a super wet coat whilst I could then touch up freehand. The shading work was all done freehand, but for some reason I was getting major clogging problems. The eventual solution was a second 'new' pot of paint, a complete strip/clean of the airbrush with some Windsor Newton Acrylic Brush cleaner, and a healthy thinning with proper Xtracrylics thinner. I'm not super happy with it, but I know better when to stop chasing and leave well alone. The 'Blue' is a mix of Tamiya 'Flat Blue' and 'Sky Blue' (XF-8 and X14 I think). The colour looked like I wanted in the mixing pot, but it a touch too 'bright' on the plastic. I daren't try an alternate mix at this point otherwise I'll loose the underlying camo thats showing through, which defeats the purpose. Again, leave off before I make it a complete mess. The worst part is that the 'Blue' looks too uniform. I lost all the underlying shading, and I'm leary of shading again as I don't want to loose that ghost camo effect. So I'm going to leave it as is, and see what I can go with weathering washes etc later on. Usual caveats, the flash makes the shading stand out far more than in reality ER220 Upper ER220 Lower (EP829 looks the same) EP829 Upper EP829 Closeup Cheers for now, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 Excellent paint work on both of those! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrallman Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 very nice, i like the way the desert scheme shows through Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted December 29, 2007 Author Share Posted December 29, 2007 Why is it that work and families always want priority over modelling ? Work has been progressing, but I've been slow at getting around to shooting the results and getting them posted. First, all the miscy bits. Spinners. Ultracast, painted with some very old Citadel Red. I experimented shading with thin Tamiya Smoke. I really like this for when I don't want to mix up multiple shades, or for colours that don't lighten and darken easy (like red). Wash is a grey chalk/sludge wash. Wheels. Ultracast again. Azure Blue is Xtracrylics, PollyScale Nato black tyres and Citadel ink wash. Undercarriage. All stock. Exhausts. Ultracast again. Tamiya metallic grey, a thin wash of dark brown Citadel Ink, followed by a thin wash of chestnut (rusty orange) Citadel Ink. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted December 29, 2007 Author Share Posted December 29, 2007 Every build has to have something that drives me up the wall and back again. This time it was decals. Original plan was to use Tamiya stencils for the underside markings. For some reason, recent Tamiya boxings have caused me brief and this one is the same. The decals leave behind a nasty white residue that will not come off. The first decal on did the same thing, and I hastily removed it, and cleaned up as best I could. Okay, so skip the stencils, (which I don't always add anyways unless they are really prominent). The roundels were going to be XtraDecals, which I've used in the past, but for some reason, they shattered badly whilst soaking. I think the water was too cold. As that was the last I had from that sheet in the right size, I was forced to use the roundels from the Victory Productions 'Aces' sheet I was using for the markings. Ive used these before, and they are very thick and are a complete sod to get settled down. This was no exception, and took about a week of slicing and applying every 'set' known to man to get them to confirm to the bumps on the underwing. Markings are from the Victory Productions sheet. The set for EP829 has a pair of small 'T's, but no indication where they go. So I left them off as I had no references to clarify. The wash is a sludge chalk. Medium grey underside, chocolate brown uppers. As before, the finish here is a personal asthetic choice. ER220 Underside (EP829 looks the same) ER220 Upper EP829 Upper Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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